o 

OUR NATIONAL FLAG 

WHICH TO-DAY IS SO GENERALLY FLOAT- 
ING OVER OUR HOMES, SCHOOL-HOUSES 
AND PLACES OF BUSINESS, IS OF GREATER 
INTEREST THAN EVER BEFORE. 

LET US KNOW ITS HISTORY. 

THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN SEND YOU 
MORE INTERESTING. 

PLEASE ACCEPT WITH OUR COMPLIMENTS 

RUMSEY, LlGHTNER & CO., 
CHICAGO, ILL. 

Grain, Seeds and Provision 
Commission Merchants 







THE FLAG 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES 



REPORT BY 



BRIGADIER GENERAL. ROBT. H. HA^L, U. S. A. 

n 



TO ILLINOIS COMMANDERY OF THE MILITARY 

ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION OF 

THE UNITED STATES. 



CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
1898. 



The Flag of the United States* 



Although we are a comparatively young nation, the 
Stars and Stripes may claim antiquity among national 
flags. They are older than the flag of Great Britain, 
which was established in 1801; than the French tri-color, 
which was decreed in 1794; than the flag of the German 
Empire, which dates from 1870; than the flag of Spain, 
which was decreed in 1785; than the flag of Italy, which 
was established in 1848; than that of Sweden and Norway, 
which was decreed in 181 7; than the flag of Portugal, 
which was adopted in 1815; than the recent flags of the 
empires of China and Japan; or those of all the South 
American States, which have in general been modeled 
from our own. 

The flags used by the American colonies before they de- 
clared their independence of Great Britain would naturally 
be the flag of England, but this was not the invariable 
rule. Several flags, differing more or less from the en- 
signs of that kingdom, were at times in use, but they are 
not now objects of our inquiries. 

It is not positively ascertained that any flags were car- 
ried by the minute men and militia who fought at Lex- 
ington and Concord, or by the colonial troops in the 



battle of Bunker Hill. It is certain that none were cap- 
tured from them by the British. In Trumbull's painting 
of this battle, it is true, a flag is represented as hoisted at 
the redoubt, but this cannot be considered authoritative 
in view of contemporary accounts and the recollections of 
old soldiers. But for some months after the beginning 
of the siege of Boston, what is known as the pine-tree 
flag was in common, but by no means universal use in the 
besieging army, and on the floating batteries in Charles 
river, and the vessels of the infant navy. This flag was 
of white bunting, having in the center, on one side, a 
green pine-tree, and on the other side the motto, "Appeal 
to Heaven. " It was under this flag that in January, 1776, 
Commodore Tucker, while commanding a small schooner, 
captured a British transport having on board stores and 
troops destined for General Gage's force in Boston. But, 
although there are recorded in the history of those days 
many instances of the use of the pine-tree flag between 
October, 1775, and July, 1776, it was never in a proper 
sense a national flag. 

The necessity for a common flag seems not to have been 
thought of until Dr. Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsyl- 
vania, Thomas Lynch, of South Carolina, and Benjamin 
Harrison, of Virginia, visited Washington's camp, at 
Cambridge, in October, 1775, as a committee from Con- 
gress to consult with him and with others ' ' touching the 
most effectual method of continuing, supporting, and 
regulating a continental army. ' ' They considered, also, 
the subject of a flag, and the result of their conference 
was the retention of the English colors, the crosses of St. 



George and St. Andrew, red on a blue ground, in the 
upper quarter, next the staff, to represent the still recog- 
nized sovereignty of England, coupled with thirteen 
stripes, alternate red and white, emblematic of the union 
of the thirteen colonies against England's tyranny and 
oppression. The new striped flag was first hoisted on the 
second of January, 1776, over the camp at Cambridge, 
receiving a salute of thirteen guns and thirteen cheers ; 
but it was only a suggestion, for its use was seemingly 
not required. A squadron of five vessels commanded by 
Commodore Hopkins, sailed under this flag from Phila- 
delphia, and on March 2, 1776, made a descent on the 
island of New Providence, capturing the town of Nassau, 
with the governor, and one hundred cannon and a large 
quantity of other military stores. This flag, too, was 
triumphantly carried into Boston on the afternoon of 
March 17/ 1776, by a detachment under the command of 
Colonel Ebenezer Learned, of the Third Regiment of 
Continental Infantry. And it remained the quasi conti- 
nental colors during the disastrous battle of Long Island, 
the evacuation of New York, the momentary success at 
Harlem Heights, the British repulse at White Plains, the 
crushing loss of Forts Washington and Lee, the dreary 
retreat through the Jerseys, and the brilliant strokes at 
Trenton and Princeton. 

In the meantime, Congress had declared the indepen- 
dence of the colonies, and their right to be free and inde- 
pendent states. But although the declaration was pub- 
lished to the world on the fourth of July, 1776, it was not 
until Saturday, June 14th, 1777, that Congress " Resolved 



— That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen 
stripes, alternate red and white; that the nnion be thirteen 
stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constella- 
tion." This date, then, is the birthday of our Stars and 
Stripes, and on it is based their rightful claim to anti- 
quity among national flags. 

There has been much ingenious but not very profitable 
speculation as to the origin of the flag. . The Resolve was 
printed in the newspapers in August, but was not offi- 
cially promulgated under the signature of the Secretary 
of Congress, at Philadelphia, until the third of September. 
No record has been found of the discussions w T hich must 
have preceded its adoption, nor do we know to whom 
we are indebted for the beautiful and inspiring combina- 
tion of stars and stripes. It does not appear from the 
records whether it was the suggestion of an individual, 
or of a committee, or who presented the resolve. It 
seems probable that it emanated from the Marine Com- 
mittee, and this, indeed, is the tradition. Of the many 
theories as to the flag's origin, none are found to be 
wholly satisfactory in this, the one hundred and twentieth 
year after its adoption. 

It is claimed that a Mrs. John Ross, an upholsterer, 
who lived on Arch Street, Philadelphia, was the maker 
of the first flag, combining the stars and stripes. Her 
descendants assert that a committee of Congress, accom- 
panied by General Washington, who was in Philadelphia 
in June, 1776, called upon Mrs. Ross and engaged her to 
make the flag from a rough drawing, which at her sug- 
gestion, was re-drawn by General Washington with pencil, 



in her back parlor, and that the flag thns designed was 
adopted by Congress a year later. 

The first military incident connected with the new flag 
occurred on the second of August, 1777, when the British 
Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger began the siege of 
Fort Schuyler, where the town of Rome, Oneida County, 
New York, now stands. The garrison being without a 
flag hastily devised one. Bits of scarlet cloth were put 
together to make the red, shirts were cut up to form the 
white, and the blue ground for the stars was composed of 
a cloak contributed by one of the captains of the garri- ' 
son. Under this novel, extemporized flag, seven hundred 
and fifty brave men commanded by Colonel Peter 
Gansevoort, of New York, sustained a siege of twenty-one 
days by an undetermined number of Indians, British reg- 
ular soldiers, Canadians and tories. But it seems well 
authenticated that the^Stars and Stripes as. we now see 
them, except as to the number of the stars, were first un- 
furled at the battle of Brandy wine, September 11, 1777, 
eight days after they were officially promulgated at Phil- 
adelphia. This was the flag that saw the surrender of 
Burgoyne at Saratoga and of Cornwallis at Yorktown, 
and which with Washington entered New York City at 
one o'clock on the afternoon of November 25, 1783, close 
upon the heels of the departing British. 

By the year 1794, Vermont and Kentucky had been 
admitted into the Union, and in January a bill was intro- 
duced in the Senate to increase the number of stars and 
of stripes to fifteen. It promptly passed the Senate, but in 
the House of Representatives met with much opposition 



and contemptuous ridicule. The bill was finally passed 
and approved January 13, 1794, to take effect May 

1, 1795. This flag with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, 
remained the national flag for twenty -three years, until 
1 818. To it, in the war of 181 2, the British frigates 
Guerriere, Macedonian and Java struck their colors; with 
it, Perry, only ten years older than the flag itself, rode, 
triumphant, on Lake Brie ; and Pakenham with his sea- 
soned soldiers went down before it at Xew Orleans. 

In 1799, the revenue flag was created by Congress, and 
in pursuance of the Act, the Secretary of the Treasury 
ordered on August 1 , of that year, that ' c the ensign and 
pennant directed by the President under the Act of March 

2, 1799, consist of sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate 
red and white, the union of the ensign bearing the arms 
of the United States, in dark blue on a white field. ' ' The 
sixteen stripes represented the number of States then in 
the Union, and the ensign has since undergone no 
change. This is the flag habitually displayed over the 
custom-houses and other buildings, and on the revenue 
cutters pertaining to the Treasury Department. In 1871, 
the revenue pennant was altered by substituting thirteen 
blue stars for the eagle in the union. 

Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana and Indiana were success- 
ively admitted as States, and a change in the national 
flag seemed desirable. Accordingly after the admission 
of the nineteenth state, Indiana, December 11, 1816, the 
Honorable Peter H. Wendover, of New York, offered in 
the House a resolution, "that a committee be appointed 
to inquire into the expediency of altering the flag of the 



United States." Such a committee was thereupon ap- 
pointed ; and while it had the matter under consideration, 
Mr. Wendover called for advice upon Captain Samuel 
Chester R.eid, a sailing master in the navy, who had made 
his name a memorable one in United States history by his 
defense of the privateer brig General Armstrong \ carry- 
ing seven guns and ninety men, against the attack 
of a British squadron of three sail, carrying one 
hundred and thirty -six guns and more than two thousand 
men, in one of the most remarkable naval battles on 
record, in the harbor of Fayal, in the Azores, September 
26 and 27, 1814. Captain Reid recommended that the 
number of stripes he reduced to thirteen, to represent 
the original states, that the number of stars be increased 
to the number of all the states, and that an additional 
star be added for each new state admitted. A bill was 
introduced conformable to this suggestion, but through 
pressure of other business before Congress was not acted 
upon. On the 16th of December, 1817, after the reassem- 
bling of Congress, Mr. Wendover again introduced his 
resolution, and a bill substantially the same as its pre- 
decessor was passed by the House of Representatives, 
March 24, 1818, with but two^ or three dissenting votes, 
and by the Senate, unanimously. It was approved by the 
president, James Monroe, Saturday, April 4, 1818. Its 
title had been changed in the House, and the exact text 
of the law is as follows: "An act to establish the Flag 
of the United States. Section i. Be it enacted, etc. 
That, from and after the fourth day of July next, the flag 
of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate 



red and white; that the union be twenty stars, white, 
in a blue field. Section 2. And be it further enacted, 
That, on the admission of every new state into the 
Union, one star be added to the union of the flag ; and 
that such addition shall take effect on the fourth day of 
July then next succeeding such admission. Approved, 
April 4th, 1818." 

The twentieth state, Mississippi, had been admitted 
since the bill was originally introduced, but the first state 
to be admitted after its approval, the one which gave the 
twenty-first star to the flag, was the state af Illinois. 

Although the law designated the fourth of the next 
July as the date of the official adoption of the flag, Cap- 
tain Reid had generously completed one, and it was 
hoisted on Congress Hall at 2 o'clock p. m., Monday, 
April 13, 18 1 8. But it was not until February 24, 1866, 
that a strictly American flag, made from American bunt- 
ing, was hoisted over the capital at Washington, our flags 
before that date having been of bunting made in England. 
The national flags now hoisted at forts or camps and on 
the shipping of the navy are made of bunting of American 
manufacture. 

There are seven red and six white stripes on the flag, 
the red being at top and bottom. The union is placed in 
the upper quarter, next to the staff, and extends to the 
lower edge of the fourth red stripe from the top, and is 
one-third the length of the flag. There was formerly great 
lack of uniformity in the arrangement of the stars in the 
union, but in the flag now used they are grouped in six 
horizontal rows, the first, third and fifth rows having 



eight stars each, and the second, fourth and sixth having 
each seven stars, making the required total of forty -five. 

It is sometimes mentioned as singular that the stars on 
our flag are five-pointed, while our coins have on them 
stars with six points. But in the heraldic language of 
England, stars are six-pointed, while in that of France, 
Germany and Holland they have five points, only, and 
the designer of our early coins followed the English, 
while the designer of our flag followed the continental 
custom. 

Every military post occupied by troops is provided with 
three flags, one of which is flying every day ; first, the 
garrison flag, which is twenty feet wide and thirty -six 
feet long, and is hoisted only on holidays and important 
occasions ; second, the post flag, which measures ten by 
twenty feet and habitually flies in pleasant weather ; and, 
third, the storm flag, which is four feet two inches wide 
and eight feet long, and is hoisted when the weather is 
windy or stormy. This last flag is also used to designate 
recruiting stations. 

The flag at military posts is hoisted by a non-commis- 
sioned officer and two privates of the guard immediately 
after the gun is fired in the morning, usually at five 
o'clock in the summer, and six o'clock in the winter 
months. It is lowered by a like party when the gun is 
fired at sunset, and this is done with some form. The 
garrison is paraded, and stands at attention while the 
band plays the ' ' Star Spangled Banner ; ' ' and the low- 
ering of the flag is so regulated that as the band finishes 
the air, the flag reaches the bottom of the staff. The 



garrison then disperses and the flag is neatly folded and 
carried to the guard-house where it is carefully kept until 
again needed. 

Bach regiment in the army has two flags which are 
known as the colors ; one the national color, the Stars 
and Stripes, and the other the regimental color. Both 
are of silk. Another national color, of bunting, known 
as the sendee color, is also furnished each regiment to be 
used at drills and on ordinary marches. Bach of these 
colors, except for the cavalry, is four feet four inches 
wide, and five feet six inches long, and is fastened to a 
pike which is nine feet in length. The cavalry colors, 
which are called standards, are somewhat smaller and the 
pike a little longer. The colors and standards are 
carried by non-commissioned officers who have been 
distinguished for meritorious conduct and for soldierly 
bearing. The national color has embroidered on its 
center stripe, in silver for the engineers, in white silk for 
the infantry, and in yellow silk for the artillery and 
cavalry, the number and name of the regiment to which 
it belongs. The regimental color is scarlet for the 
engineers and artillery, blue for the infantry and yellow 
for the cavalry ; and has embroidered on it for the 
engineers, in silver, a castle, with the letters " U. S." 
above it, and the word " Engineers " below it; for the 
infantry and cavalry, the coat of arms of the United 
States, and below the eagle a red scroll on which is em- 
broidered the number and name of the regiment in white 
for the infantry and yellow for the cavalry ; for the artil- 
lery, two cannon, crossed, with the letters " U. S." above 



them and below them the number and name of the regi- 
ment, in scarlet letters on a yellow scroll. The silken 
national colors are carried in battle and on occasions of 
ceremony. The regimental colors are also carried in 
battle but not at ceremonies unless the whole regiment is 
present. The names of battles in which a regiment has 
been distinguished for good conduct are engraved on 
silver rings which are fastened to the pike. 

Officers and enlisted men passing the national color 
render the prescribed salute. With no arms in hand the 
salute is made by uncovering. 

Bach troop of cavalry and light battery of artillery is 
provided with a guidon, which is a swallow-tailed flag, 
three feet five inches long and two feet three inches wide. 
Those for the cavalry are of two horizontal stripes each 
one-half the width of the flag, the upper stripe red, 
with the number of the regiment on it in white, and the 
lower white, with the letter of the troop in red. Those 
for the light batteries are of scarlet, bearing in the center 
two cross cannon, with the number of the regiment above, 
and the letter of the battery below them, all in yellow. 

The distinctive mark of a ship of the navy in com- 
mission is a flag, or pennant, at the mast-head of the 
main. The national ensign on a ship of the navy at 
anchor is hoisted at 8 a. m. and kept flying until sunset, 
if the weather permits, and is also hoisted whenever a 
ship comes to anchor or gets under way. When it is to be 
hoisted the field musicians and the band are required to 
be present. The music gives three rolls and three 
flourishes. At the third roll the ensign is started from 

13 



the deck, hoisted slowly to the peak, or truck, and, 
while it is ascending, the band plays ' ' The Star Spangled 
Banner. ' ' When the ensign leaves the deck all sentinels 
salute and remain in that position until the band ceases to 
play. All officers and men during the same time stand 
facing the ensign and salute it when it reaches the truck, 
or peak. The same form is followed at sunset, when th< 
ensign is lowered, except that the rolls and nourishes are 
given before the ensign is started down, the band plays 
' ' Hail Columbia ' ' while it is descending, and the officers 
and the men salute it as it touches the deck. Like 
ceremonies are observed, as closely as possible, at all our 
naval stations. Every officer and man on reaching the 
quarter-deck of a ship, or on leaving it to go over the side, 
salutes the national ensign. 

On the Fourth of July and the 22nd of February every 
ship of the navy in commission, and not under way, 
dresses ship at 8 a.m. and, weather permitting, remains 
dressed until sunset. 

At no military post and on no ship of the navy is the 
flag permitted to be dipped, except in return for such a 
compliment. 

As a sign of distress, the world over, the national nag is 
displayed with the union down, and a sign of mourning 
equally universal is a flag flying at half-mast. 

Our flag was first saluted by a foreign power, February 
14, 1778, at Quiberon Bay, France, when the French 
Admiral LaMotte Piquet saluted the flag of the Ranger, 
commanded by Captain Paul Jones. 



H 



It first appeared on the Great Lakes in 1797 on a short- 
lived schooner which was in that year launched at Brie, 
Pennsylvania. 

It first appeared at Chicago in 1804 when the troops 
arrived to construct Fort Dearborn. 

It was carried to Lat. 83 deg., 24 min., North, on May 
T.3, 1882, by Lieutenant James B. Lockwood, of the 23rd 
U.S. Infantry, its furthest north. 

It was carried to Lat. 70 deg., 14 min., South, on 
March 24, 1839, by Lieutenant William M. Walker, of the 
Navy, its furthest south. 

It was first carried around the world on the ship 
Columbia, which sailed from Boston, September 30, 1787, 
and returned to that port by the way of. the Cape of Good 
Hope, August 10, 1790. And it is interesting to note, it 
was this same good ship, Columbia which on the nth of 
May, 1792, under the same commander, Robert Gray, 
entered the mouth of, and gave its name to, the great 
river in the northwest. 

The addition of the twenty-eighth star, for Texas, was 
speedily followed by the war with Mexico, and before 
that war had made much progress the twenty-ninth star 
had been added to represent Iowa. It was the flag of 
twenty-eight stars which was so gallantly upheld against 
odds of four to one on the glorious field of Buena Vista by 
Hardin's and Bissell's Illinois regiments ; and it was the 
flag of twenty-nine stars which was borne by General 
Scott on his triumphal march from Vera Cruz to the 
City of Mexico. 



The outbreak of the Rebellion found thirty -four stars in 
the union of the nag. This was the constellation which 
shone on Grant at Fort Donelson, while at Appomatox 
two additional stars, thirty-six in all, smiled approval, we 
may believe, on the prowess of the same favored son of 
Illinois. 

When in 1794, it was proposed to add two additional 
stars to the nag, for Vermont and Kentucky, it was 
objected that within fifteen years we might be obliged, by 
such a rule, to have a flag with twenty stars. Although 
it was not until twenty -three years later that so many 
states were in the Union, no one "probably would have 
then ventured to predict that forty -five stars would be in 
the constellation one hundred years after the Secretary of 
the Treasury proclaimed the revenue flag with its sixteen 
vertical stripes. 




Compliments 

of 

RUMSEY, LIGHTNER & CO., 

Chicago. 



